International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE) ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-7, Issue-6S5, April 2019 Socialistic Vision of John Steinbeck and Dos Passos: Foucauldian Analysis of the Grapes of Wrath and Manhattan Transfer Neha Puri, Aruna Bhat I. INTRODUCTION Abstract:America emerged as a super power after the World War I but people also witnessed the suffering and severe John Steinbeck and Dos Passos were greatly impacted by degradation of American life. The Wall Street Crash, the the revolutionary atmosphere of 1930s. No wonder, Depression and the growth of Capitalism brought untold Manhattan Transfer (1925) of Dos Passos and The Grapes miseries to the fruit pickers and the farmers in America. John of Wrath (1939)[35],[5],[17] of John Steinbeck explore Steinbeck was inspired by the radical philosophy of Karl Marx individual freedom in socialistic collectivism; both the who propounded the theory of class less society giving a novels describe their nostalgic search for individualism in dialectical relationship between the haves and haves not. John Steinbeck is seriously concerned with the struggle of the “free enterprise.” proletariat. Steinbeck’s novels written during the 1930’s and 1940’s display his strong understanding of the common Dos Passos expressed his concern for the loss of liberty of Communist principles. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is the the individuals in his article “America and the Pursuit of heartrending tale of how “farming became industry” (298), Happiness” published in Nation thus: “We must stop the depicting the sufferings of the farmers trapped in the Dust Bowl economic war, the war for the existence of man against of the twenties. Dos Passos depicted his radical vision in his man” (778). [19]The Grapes of Wrath (1939) of John Manhattan Transfer. The social injustice caused in the coal Steinbeck[17] won the Pulitzer Award in 1940 for his fields, in the mines and in the factories shocked Dos Passos who innovative and idealistic thoughts and for a sympathetic used his art to portray the slums and degradation of the middle description of the poor farmers exhorting the Americans for class Americans. In this research paper the famous novels The Grapes of Wrath of John Steinbeck and Manhattan Transfer of greater social commitment. The novel is a social protest John Dos Passos are investigated relying on the theories of novel as the novelist highlights the devastating effects of power structure propounded by Michael Foucault. John Dos capitalism. Steinbeck expressed his sympathy and moral Passos is a celebrated American novelist who brought about concern to depict the plight of the outsiders, the alienated, cultural and critical renaissance in America since he launched a the defeated and the oppressed working class. Steinbeck got crusade against the growing materialism and capitalism. The Nobel Prize for his serious concern expressed in The critics hailed Dos Passos as a prophet of social conflict during Grapes of Wrath for the fruit pickers and the farming the Jazz Age and the Depression who championed the cause of community and the callous attitude of the bankers and the the proletariats of the Middle class Americans like John industrialists. Steinbeck launched a vigorous attack on the Steinbeck. His novels are indubitably a representation of American life possessing, passion, depth and appreciable artistic merchants and bankers and money lenders denouncing the power. Dos Passos didn’t follow his contemporaries such as capitalist doctrine promoting greed, profit, exploitation and Earnest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Norman Mailer and materialistic instincts. The Grapes of Wrath is about the Joseph Heller who celebrated the romantic adventures of war Joad family. The core of the family consists of Ma and Pa whereas used his artistic talent to depict the plight and anguish Joad and their six children. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of of the middle class Americans working in the factories and living Wrath is a revolutionary novel challenging the American in slums of New York and Chicago. Dos Passos was influenced literary culture which never represented the working by the ideas of Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci. The journey of classes. Nicholas Coles and Janet Zandy published[9] his novels from One Man’s Initiation to U.S.A. and to American Working-Class Literature: An Anthology Manhattan Transfer is full of convincing political analysis and an expression of his Marxian ideology. Dos Passos expresses his (2007)[20] in which they highlighted the revolutionary serious concern for the oppressed, exploited and the lower nature of The Grapes of Wrath .The plot of The Grapes of middle class workers. Wrath records the history and lives of dislocated, poor, white, share cropping farmers from Oklahoma. Steinbeck Index Terms: Power Structure, Renaissance, Materialism, took up this theme and articulated the plight of the Capitalism, Marxism , Crusade, Oppressed, Exploited, Anguish, proletariat in a simple, colloquial and touching style. He Plight. became the spokesman of the lower class or “the American Underclass”or those “people stuck at the bottom”. Steinbeck hits at the machines that enslave the farmers. He vilifies the men that work on the machines: Revised Manuscript Received on December 22, 2018. Neha Puri,Ph. D Researcher, LPU,Punjab,India Aruna Bhat,Assistant Professor, LPU,Punjab,India Published By: Retrieval Number:F10560476S519/19 ©BEIESP 336 Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering & Sciences Publication Socialistic Vision of John Steinbeck and Dos Passos: Foucauldian Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath and Manhattan Transfer The man sitting in the iron seat did not look like a universal soul.” In 1941, Frederick I. Carpenter in his article man… He loved the land no more than the bank…He could “The Philosophical Joads” observed that Steinbeck took the admire the orgasms set by gears, taping inspiration from Whitman, Emerson and Dewy to produce a methodically…without passion (John Steinbeck, The new kind of Christianity in his novel. Warren Beach[2] Grapes of Wrath 48). The Grapes of Wrath presents the accorded the classical status to The Grapes of Wrath. Alfred classic tale of the struggles of the proletariat of America Kazin gave a balanced view of The Grapes of Wrath against the forces of nature and cruel business community remarking that Steinbeck “managed to create a kind of who took away everything that belonged to them. Steinbeck realism that avoided the extremes endemic to the thirties.” exposes and ridicules the callous and inhuman nature of the The list of critical research articles is very long as The capitalists who use every fair and foul means to exploit the Grapes of Wrath excited great interest among the critics and poor and the downtrodden farming community. There are the reviewers since the publication of the novel. Lewis two conspicuous qualities of the novel; it is a protest novel Gannett in his The Portable Steinbeck reports that Steinbeck with a tragic theme and has been written to awaken the visited the Valley to have the real knowledge of the farmers humanity of the oppressive policies of the capitalistic as he reported in 1938: “I must go out over into the interior system of America. Hundreds of thousands small farmers; valley. There are five thousand families starving to death share croppers have been driven by the banks and the big over there, not just hungry but actually starving…” landlords from their farms to move the Westwards. The (Gannett xxii). Grapes of Wrath belongs to the tradition of Dos Passos’ Needless to say that John Steinbeck has handled trilogy U.S.A. and Uncle Tom’s Cabin with force and the weapon of fiction, with all its might in an grandeur. The novel is an epic of misery; a prodigious and uncompromising manner, for the awareness and for the an excruciating account of agrarian suffering. There were benefit of humanity. Steinbeck held a faithful mirror up to three generations living together but they are forced to go his land and times in his The Grapes of Wrath. The novel is on an unknown destination. The novel is a painful story of classical in themes and tone; it is a social novel evoking the death, desertion and hunger. Indeed, The Grapes of Wrath is concern for the suffering farmers like Zola and Dos Passos. a monograph on rural sociology. He has presented a vivid Jacobson reports that when Steinbeck finished his novel in picture of the social conditions and in the words of Gorky 1938, he was “exhausted” and the doctors advised him and Lucas the novel is about “social realism.” The end of complete rest. It is pertinent to note that when the novel was the novel gives the message of social and political published it was considered as a “document” and not a awareness and practical wisdom in time of enormous stress. novel. George Thomas Miron in his book The Truth About The economic collapse brought a spirit of revolution in John Steinbeck and the Migrants (1939) condemned the America as all political planning failed. The middle class novel thus: “The Grapes of Wrath is a novel where in Americans were disillusioned by the collapse of the naturalism has gone berserk, where truth has run amuck economic system. But Edmund Wilson (1940) in his book drunken upon prejudice and exaggeration, where matters Classics and Commercials condemned Steinbeck for his economic have been hurled beyond the pale of rational and “tendency to present human life in animal terms” (5). realistic thinking” (5). Steinbeck has written thirty chapters Wilson dubbed The Grapes of Wrath as a “propaganda which can be divided into three sections; the long journey novel.” The novel became so popular that there was a of the migrant workers can be traced back to the historical serious debate about the “Migrant Question” raised by John exodus of the Israelites from Egypt given out in the Bible.